Judy Burk, second from left,top, and her family get together
every year to make Italian Christmas Bow Cookies.

Judy Burk, left, and her cousin, Mary Ann Bell, sugar the
finished Italian Christmas Bow Cookies. About 20 members of the
family get together one day every year on a December weekend to
make an estimated 800 or more of the cookies.

Legacy Recipes: Laughter, memories and cookies are on the agenda when this family gets together before Christmas

Judy Burk, second from left,top, and her family get together
every year to make Italian Christmas Bow Cookies.

Judy Burk, left, and her cousin, Mary Ann Bell, sugar the
finished Italian Christmas Bow Cookies. About 20 members of the
family get together one day every year on a December weekend to
make an estimated 800 or more of the cookies.

There's always laughter, tears and lots of cookies when Judy
Burk and her relatives get together for their annual Christmas
cookie-baking bash.

It's an all-day affair, and then some, with cousins, children
and even grandchildren getting together to make a cookie Judy Burk,
58, says has been in her family for generations.

And while the cookies are the end result of these marathon
sessions - the latest took place Saturday at her uncle's house -
the memories and good feelings generated at these events last much
longer than the trays and trays of sweet confections that are
produced.

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"We have a good old time," said Burk, who works as a home health
aide. "We all get there around 9 a.m. We break for lunch. We have
wine and subs, and we carry on until we are out of dough. The whole
thing usually lasts until 3 or 4 in the afternoon."

Growing up on East Avenue in Vineland, Burk was always close to
her extended Italian family.

Her dad, Dante Manaresi, was a hairdresser in Vineland, while
her mom, Sue, worked in a local factory that produced paper
headrest covers for dentist chairs.

Burk's grandfather lived in a house behind hers. She could get
to her cousins' house by walking through their adjoining
backyards.

"I didn't necessarily celebrate a lot of holidays with my
cousins, but during the summers we were always outside," she said.
"We would put on little plays for the neighborhood. I remember me
and my cousins Ginger, Beanie and Collette singing 'When the Saints
Come Marching In.'"

Back then, the holiday cookie-making was a family affair, with
Burk and her sister, Patty, helping their mother and her cousins
helping their mother.

"It was just our family, so it wasn't chaotic, but we looked
forward to it every year," she said.

"We all had special jobs when it came to making the cookies. As
a child my job was eating the raw dough," Burk recalled. Sometimes
old habits die hard, and Burk is still known to sample the dough
before it enters the oven.

"I catch hell for it now when I do that with everybody around,"
she said with a laugh.

Burk grew up and married her husband, Fred, who is a planner at
Stockton. The pair settled in Mays Landing and over the years, Burk
got away from the holiday cookie-baking tradition.

But about a decade ago, Burk was invited to help her cousins,
who maintained the tradition, gathering together on a December
weekend at the house of Uncle Nick DeBello, 91, for an exercise in
group baking.

Everybody still has their own jobs, and the participants are
broken down into several work groups, said DeBello's son, also
Nick, 64.

"There could be up to 20 people that are there," said the
younger DeBello, who works as vice president of quality management
systems for Wheaton Industries. "It's a lot of fun. You have music
playing. You have one group that is rolling the dough, making the
bows, another group is in the kitchen deep frying these things and
another group is in the dining room putting them on trays, putting
powdered sugar on them."

The event is usually coordinated by Burk's cousin, Mary Ann
"Beanie" Bell, 60, of Pitman, who has apparently been a foodie from
the get-go. Her father gave her the nickname because of her habit
of eating beans from the family garden.

For Bell, the cookie baking is a way of keeping in touch with
her past.

"This cookies baking thing has gone on all my life. It is
something my mother carried on from her mother. Her sisters would
get together to bake," she said.

The cookie making is so important to the family, that even
December weather can't cancel a baking session.

"You want to talk about the U.S. mail - neither rain nor snow is
going to stop us," said DeBello. In 2009, when a blizzard hit the
area on cookie-making day, DeBello and some of the boys in the
family got together and cleared out his father's driveway while one
of the women went and picked everyone up in her Hummer.

"No one else was out travelling, but we all did," he said.

All that work does bring rewards. Once the baking is done "we go
our merry way with our big trays of cookies," Burk said.

She gives some cookies to a cousin who is in an assisted-living
facility. Other cookies go to friends.

"It's a way of saying 'Merry Christmas! Get fat!,'" she
said.

Fred Burk is a fan of the cookies, too, so his wife makes sure
to save at least a few for him.

"I do save some, they are usually gone by the first of the
year," she said.

Mix all of the ingredients in mixer, holding out 1 cup of flour
and adding as needed. Let dough rest.

Cut a piece of dough and roll out thin. Cut in strips
approximately 6 inches long by 1-inch wide with pastry wheel. Make
a loose tie so it looks like a bow. Deep fry in oil, to a golden
brown or when oil stops sizzling. Cool on paper towels. When cool,
sprinkle with powdered sugar.

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